I am definitely no veteran teacher, but I do have some ideas that could help you out with your ISN/IN.

I have been using mine in science, pretty successfully, I might add. I have been using the left side/right side technique.
Left side: class notes, self notes, etc...
Right side: Illustrations w/ color, etc...

For example...
We did the Scientific Method...we wrote out the 7 (normally it's 6) steps and then we wrote a couple of notes under each heading.
After that, the students were instructed to draw different things on the right side that went along with what they just wrote about.
Most of them drew question marks, examples of past experiments, computers/laptops for the analyze part...etc...it was a lot of fun. I hear comments from their parents A LOT (and it's only the 4th day of school) and they all say how much their kids like it...

I also am using it in science this year. I just found out a week ago that I was teaching ss & science. I want to use IN for both subjects. If you have anymore ideas to share I would appreciate it.
I am going to use the SM for science too.

sciencenotebooks.org is a good site for science. Also interactive-notebooks.wikispaces.com is another good site.

There are several threads on the 4-8 board about ISNs. On one of them, I posted some files you can use to get ideas for assignments. If you click on my name, you can find more posts by me to find that particular post.

I have a self-contained class of 26 5th graders. Which subjects would you suggest using the IAN's for, would you do them all that way?? (Math, Grammar, Science, S.S., Reading)
Thanks for all your advice and attachments!!